Bedouin

The Bedouin are a nomadic Arab people who inhabit North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and the Levant region. Almost 22,000,000 Bedouin live in a region stretching from North Africa to the Levant, sharing a common culture of herding camels and goats; the vast majority of Bedouin adhere to Islam. Due to persecution by several governments, many Bedouin abandoned their nomadic lifestyles in favor of urban living.

History
The name "Bedouin" means "desert dweller" in Arabic, coming from the word badawi. Historically, the Bedouin have been a nomadic people, stretching from the vast deserts of North Africa to the rocky sands of the Levant. The Bedouin are made up of sixteen tribes, each of which are in control of their own routes from North Africa to the Middle East. They are pastoral nomads, living in tents in the desert and herding livestock and cattle. Due to persecution by several governments, many Bedouin were forced to abandon their traditional lifestyles and

Levant
Under Ottoman and British rule, the Bedouin were granted land in the Negev desert, living nomadic lifestyles. The Bedouin played a major role in the Arab Revolt of 1916 during World War I, during which they worked together with the British to oust the Ottomans from the Levant. In modern Israel, several Bedouin serve in the police force and even speak Hebrew, living in the sparsely-populated Negev desert of southern Israel. The Israeli politician Ehud Olmert claims that the Bedouin must be removed from a land that is not theirs, as the Israeli government planned to settle the area with Israeli settlers. Many Bedouin abandoned their nomadic lifestyles and moved into modern urban settlements, and the remaining nomadic Bedouin were persecuted and evicted from their lands.

The Bedouin were the most disadvantaged group in Israeli society, with most adults being jobless, crime being rampant, and many children being unschooled. Many Bedouin were dependent on welfare, and they were treated poorly by the Israeli authorities. Israeli authorities lured Bedouin to towns with the promise of water, land, and electricity, forcing them to settle in urban areas and abandon their traditions. Israeli aircraft also spread defoliants over Bedouin wheat crops to starve them into moving into urban areas. Israeli Labor Party MK Kolet Avital advocated for the Bedouin being granted full citizenship rights and not being forced out of their nomadic lifestyles; many other opposition MKs also supported Bedouin rights. Black Bedouin are at the bottom rung of Israeli society, being discriminated against even more than the Arab Bedouin.